Menu
Login
Bob promises 10 listings in 180 days for $5, 000 upfront cost. He is suppose to generate appointments by calling FSBO and Expires but he doesn't make the calls. He claims he calls 3 - 5 times a week. I was lucky he called once every 3 weeks. Big scam and don't be caught in the lies. You won't get anything he stated in his contract and will not give you a refund. If you take him to court he won't even defend his service. Funny thing I argued with him about the his service via email because he won't talk on the phone, I took him to court and then they called me back to sign up with them again. Are you kidding me! They didn't deliver the first time and took my money. Still waiting on those 8 listings they owe me. HUGE SCAM KEEP YOUR MONEY!
He hasn't paid as of today. There is a judgement against him and I don't believe he would ever pay because he is a scam artist but I would still file the suit.
They will not give you your money back. They won't even talk with you about it. Bob Fitzgerald doesn't care about you therefore I would just take him to court.
I also lost $10k from Bob this year with only 1 lead in 6 months. They have terrible service and ethics...i really, really wish I would have looked online before buying...
Like the author above I was also excited to start working with Bob Fitzgerald and his team. In fact, I began very much in the same fashion allowing Bob's team to receive my pre-scrubbed list once a week on the same day. In addition, they had a 6 month money back guarantee if I was displeased.
You see, Bob's team doesn't actually do much work. They take your money up front, in my case $10, 000, and provide a promise to deliver you qualified leads that would turn into listings and ultimately 25 sales. At first I thought the plan sounded solid because I was convinced it would be a systematic approach; this approach was very similar to cold calling I did on my own and helped me with my sales. It turned out they just blatantly didn't do what they promised. Furthermore, when they did provide to me a lead the lead was usually told by Bob’s staff a set of lies about me; this made it uncomfortable for me when I made the follow up call to confirm the appointment. I was concerned my reputation would be damaged as a result of their service. The leads were also awful and his staff would “set” appointments but they would be at 9PM at night on a Friday for instance. When I called the leads they would tell me they never agreed to the time to meet because they wouldn’t even be in town that week.
About month 4 I noticed things were a little fishy. I brought it up to his team and requested my money back. They insisted that I continue the program until 6 months into the service and then if I was still dissatisfied I would get my money back.
On the day of the 6th month I called Bob's team and insisted they deliver on their money back guarantee? Did they... no. His "assistants"(cohorts in his scam) told me they couldn't help me anymore and that I would need to discuss this personally with Bob. Then they refused to give me his phone number to discuss the matter with him but provided me with an email address.
My first email to Bob was extremely kind and gracious explaining that I just didn't feel the system would work for me. I asked that he please return the funds as he promised in our agreement. I didn't hear back. I wrote a second and third over the course of thirty days (again very polite emails); I always
called to speak with his "asssistants" but they said they couldn't help me. Finally after about 30 days Bob wrote me an extremely out of place email saying that I was in breach of his contract and he will not allow me to threaten him and he would not return a single penny of my funds. Threaten him? I hadn't so much as even hinted at a case of lawsuit or upset... for all I knew at this point the refund was going to be forthcoming without a single hassle.
I responded to Bob's defensive email and of course explained I was only requesting the funds as were promised to me in our agreement and that I would enjoy speaking with him on the phone so we could work something out. He then said I could sue him but he wasn't intending to give me back one penny - ever. Bob also never provided to me his phone number. He had no real explanation and frankly I don't think it matters. Turns out this guy's incorporation is the typical new york/canada situation - where
you can't really sue him because he most likely incorporated and runs his business in Canada and it would have to go internationally in order to pursue him. I guess he feels that shields him from the law. I contemplated contacting the New York prosecutor but I did get tired of the chase.
It must be hard to be a scam artist like Bob. He has to appear like he's working just hard enough to actually make people not complain at first. His staff probably knows he does his scamming but are so desperate for a job that they are willing to assist this ### in his plot. Just for your information his assistant’s names are Cheri Washburn and Kate Huddle. They seem nice but actively participate just like he does in their scam.
Word to those looking up Bob... don't trust him. You'll get ripped off like I did. On other complaint forums he actually responds and insists that the agent is the problem and they aren't good at their business. I sold almost 50 homes last year and 30 already this year. I thought Bob's service would enhance my business. Do yourself a favor, run as far and as fast as you can from Fitzgerald Coaching / Bob Fitgerald / coachbobfitgerald@gmail.com / fitzgeraldcoaching.com which now looks to be prospectingworks.com
I too was scammed by this company...paid $2500 upfront, was guaranteed that I would get a full refund after 6 months if I didn't get the services I was promised or was unhappy with the service. They have cut off all communication. Bob, if you're so successful, pay back your clients that entered into an agreement with you based on mutual trust and good faith.
Elan... Is a scam. I signed up in the fourth quarter of 2011 for $5000. When the organization failed to provide listing appointments per the agreement I complained. I was told it was my fault that the listings were not materializing but in fact the lead being provided were not credible. I had a cancellation clause in my contract that if Elan failed to deliver I could get my money back. When I attempted to exercise that option I was Stonewalled. I have been sending e-mails and calling Elan since last March trying to engage them in a conversation. Fitzgerald will not call me back. If anybody wants to engage in a lawsuit to recover losses I will be happy to participate.
FACT: Prospecting isn’t new… nor is it complicated!
FACT: We have hundreds of clients that love the service that we provide. Clients that love the tens of thousands of dollars that they’ve made working with us! Anyone who is interested in our service can talk to as many of these references as they need to so they don’t lose out on taking listing after listings simply because a handful of agents out of hundreds choose to tell their one sided story on sites like this.
FACT: As I type this, we have over 300 agents in our prospecting schedule and by comparison we have had very, very few complaints.
FACT: In today’s day and age, most companies have people that complain on web sites like this. The only reason I took the time to reply was so that a handful of people with a single sided story can’t rob you of what others have called the single best investment they’ve ever made.
FACT: YOU ARE SMART! Simply read my reply and ask yourself… Does what I wrote make sense? This is my side of the story.
MY REPLY is very simple. Just think for a moment about what we do. We Call. We are telemarketers “calling” for sale by owners and expired listings. Prospecting isn’t complicated at all. If you’d like to see what our prospecting looks like watch this video…
http://fitzgerald-coaching-prospecting.blogspot.com/http://fitzgerald-coaching-prospecting.blogspot.com/
If you hired a telemarketer to work form your office, what would they do? What would you do? You would give them a list of people to call… they would call and set appointments and you’d make the presentation, handle the seller’s objections and get the listing. Right? Prospecting isn’t complicated.
So why do some agents that have a problem with this? We have set thousands of appointments for real estate agents there are four mistakes that agents make which end up causing them complain on sites like this. Decide for yourself who is at fault.
We do not want our telemarketers to be the real estate “expert.” That is the job of the agent. Our telemarketers do not discuss the current market conditions with a seller. Our telemarkters do not discuss home prices with a seller. Our telemarkters do not handle seller’s objections or answers a seller’s questions about the home selling process. We let the agent be the agent and we simply make the appointment.
This is an actual example of a typical appointment that was sent to one of our clients… then listed and then sold!
1. WHEN THE HOME SELLS, WHERE WILL YOU BE GOING?
Nana is already moved into her new home. She married her husband in August and they decided that he had the larger home, so they would move into his. Her home is now vacant, and she moved about a mile away.
2. IS YOUR HOME CURRENTLY LISTED WITH A REAL ESTATE AGENT? No. The listing expired at the end of February, and Nana was very unhappy with the results from her realtor. She thought about leaving the home off of the market, but decided against that because she is extremely motivated to sell.
3. HOW SOON WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE THERE?
Nana is already in her new home, and she wants this home sold as soon as possible.
4. DO YOU HAVE AN ASKING PRICE IN MIND?
$307, 900. She would like advice on her asking price though. She told me that she thinks she may have been overpriced because her agent started her at $316, 000. She wants to make sure she is priced where she should be to get the home sold.
5. HOW MUCH DO YOU OWE ON THE PROPERTY?
As of October, Nana still owed $171, 000. She has still been making payments on the home, so it is less than that now.
6. WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THE HOME DOESN’T SELL?
She hasn't even thought about that option. Right now, she really just wants to get the home sold and be free from it.
7. ARE YOU INTERVIEWING ANY OTHER AGENTS? Not at the moment. Jeremy will be the first since her listing expired.
8. IF WHAT (AGENT) SAYS MAKES SENSE… ARE YOU PLANNING TO LIST THE HOME?
Yes. She is extremely motivated to get this home sold, so if she thinks that Jeremy will be more productive for her than her last agent, she will definitely re-list with them.
Again, prospecting isn’t new nor is it complicated. The four most common mistakes that an agent will make using our service are…
1. The agent is too BUSY to actually do what it takes to follow up with a seller and convert the listing. Expired listings and for sale by owners are being called by a lot of great agents every day. It is very competitive and our telemarketers have had to stand out just to get the appointment for our clients. We IMMEDIATELY send the appointment to the agent but if that agent doesn’t follow up right away and confirm the appointment… what do you think happens next? If the agent doesn’t call back for days or in many cases even weeks then the seller doesn’t even remember that we ever called or loses interest and cancels the appointment. Without diligent follow up… generating that appointment was a waste of time. This is a challenge for some of our highest producers. They may earn six and even seven figures selling real estate but if they are too busy to follow up with our appointments then they are not going to get listings. Most of our agents will follow up right away, solidify the appointment and take the listings.
2. The second challenge that can be a problem with some of the higher producers is that they are already “buying leads” from so many other sources. Some have hundreds of leads from in their systems form lead generation services, web sites and services, marketing services, mailing services, call capture services… etc. The bottom line is that those top agents have so many leads that they don’t value nor follow up diligently with the expired listings and FSBO appointments that we set for them. In most cases this type of agent couldn’t even provide any feedback on an appointments that we set for them because they NEVER even looked at the e-mail with the appointment to begin with.. I don’t have a problem with an agent having far more leads than they can handle but unlike these other sources of leads, my team may have spent 3 to 4 hours and invested hundreds of dials to finally set that appointment. If they are too busy to open their e-mail or follow up with the seller to confirm the appointment then they aren’t going to like that I hold them accountable for not doing their job. This is a partnership and they aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. Most of are clients understand that it takes a lot of hours, dials and contacts to set these appointments and the value them as such and take listings.
3. The most common problem that I’ve seen after setting thousands of appointments for real estate agents is that some simply don’t have the skill it takes to convert a prospecting based lead. The first question that we ask every potential client is have they worked with expired listings and for sale by owners in the past? They are not “come list me” referrals. It is not difficult to handle basic objections about the seller’s price expectations or the fact that the seller may have a friend in the business but an agent doesn’t want to hear that other agents are listing the same type of appointments day in and day out. It is easier to simply “trash” our appointments because the seller had some basic objections rather then educate the sellers and take listings. I’ve spent more than a decade coaching agents and the bottom line is that if they can’t help a seller see the benefit of listing with them then they are going to have to stick with working with buyers. There was an agent that posted that we sent him 52 appointments and he didn’t take a listing so the program is a scam. Never once did it cross his mind that he only helped prove my point. We can set the appointments but we can’t take the listings. Most agents in our program would have listed at least a dozen of the exact same appointments. Again, only a handful of the hundreds of clients we are prospecting for complain at all.
4. Finally, how about common sense! If you hire a telemarketer you’ll need to provide them with phone numbers... If you don’t want an appointment in a particular area, don’t put that seller on your list… If you want to be in the call schedule this week, make sure we have your numbers in time… We work on referrals so you will have to communicate when you take listings or we will stop calling until you do…
When an agent writes a post that says they only received a few appointments… they never tell you that they haven’t sent in their prospect list in months and ignored every attempt to get feedback on any listings they have taken. There is ALWAYS more to the story.
Imagine a site like this for your sellers. The seller wants way more for the home than it is worth… they refused all the advice you gave them about the market and price reductions but they still went online to complain that you didn’t do anything to sell their house and that people should beware of listings with you. You’d simply direct them to sellers who took your advice and were thrilled with your service! If you are still unsure about our service, e-mail me and I’ll arrange for you to talk to as many agents as it takes to see that they are making thousands and thousands of dollars with us and so can you!
Bob Fitzgerald
Coachbobfitzgerald@gmail.com
This is a copy of a recent communication attempting to coach one of our clients:
Bob... you continue to run a scam operation to this day.
Here's how I know: 1) For a company that is in the business of making calls, no one seems to be able to return a call to a dissatisfied client of yours. Your chosen method is for your staff to respond only to emails that are escalated to a heated level. Then you insult us saying we ask too many questions and you can't keep up with our emails or questions. If you would just pick up the phone and talk to us, possibly a much better rapport could be built. But, let's face it...you don't care. 2) In my case, I followed "the rules". After being lectured by you Client Services Manager and President a few times, about not submitting my lists on the 31st/1st or 15th in order to be in your "system", I made sure I didn't make that mistake again. I began to send you the lists more frequently than twice a month and got to a point of daily submissions. For over a month you did not send me a single lead and never responded to my queries about why that is the case (since prospecting isn't so hard and you are a wiz at this sort ot thing). Then I started to get unacceptable excuses. You were never willing to update me on whether or not you got through the lists I sent so I had no idea if the lists I sent were being worked on (therefore lost opportunities for me to pick up the phone and call these people). 3) Of the 15 leads you sent me, none have been as thorough as what you described above - yet you sent them to me and then make sound like I'm unskilled in converting these leads into listings. And...90% of these leads came to me after persistent inquiries from me as to why you aren't sending me anyhing. 4) You do not supply your clients ("partners" you call us LOL) with information on how you work and how we need to work with you. Only after persistent inquiry do I find out that I can submit lists on a daily basis. If I don't send you lists on the 31st/1st or 15th, you will spit me out of the system and once I start sending again, then "it takes time" to get me back into your system. This is not spelled out anywhere on your website for clients to understand. Instead we get lectured. 4) Worst of all, Bob, you hide behind your people. They gave me your email address but you never, ever responded. Ever. Way to be a leader of your company.
In the past year -- you only sent me 15 people to contact. For a company that charges a super high premium for your services, I would think I would have gotten far more than this number in the 7 months that I was particularly active with your company. OR...at least better customer service. My first appointment was extremely embarrasing. You guys set a weekend appointment, sent me the notice of the appointment, gave me a bad phone number for the seller and never, ever returned my call to find out what the right number is. So...I went on the appointment 45 minutes away with the hope that the sellers would be home. Luckily they were, but it was embarrasing to not be able to confirm it in advance. Had I had the chance it would have cleared up the seller's misconception that I was bringing buyers to the appointment as a showing. I have had other "leads" from you where the seller was not properly vetted. In one case the seller had listing agreement in place. I found this out within hours of you sending me the lead. The bottom line is the "Emperor Has No Clothes" here. You guys have no accountability and sub-par customer service (to be as nice about it as possible).
This week, I finally got $3K of my $5K back from you. I should have gotten it all but am glad to be rid of you. You are a disgrace to our industry.
It's great that you have seen results but I think these other complaints show that the integrity of this company is in question. If you or I wrote a contract with a refund in it we would stand behind it. He does not. He hides like a coward and does not respond.
I know with the Internet that word travels quickly. Unfortunately, it is the negative that always takes priority, hence the "complaint" board. Where are all the "Praise Boards"? I have worked with Fitzgerald Coaching for almost 8 months. I can honestly say that it is a service I will use for the rest of my career. I know I have a strong skill set as an agent and if I can get in front of motivated sellers looking to sell their home, I stand an extraordinary chance to take the listing.
What I tell other agents who ask me if they should join the service is simple, if you can sell yourself, do a great listing presentation and are able to educate the seller on price, there is no reason why you shouldn't join. I would be inclined to think if you are even somewhat of a decent listing agent you already do this!
Additionally, to date I have taken 21 Listings and have closed 11, 4 sales pending, 3 that sellers won't agree to a price reduction and 3 are still on the market. The great thing is that the 3 that wont reduce their price will be replaced at no additional cost.
I purchased the 25 Listings/Closed transaction package for 10k, let's just say that my first deal I closed from my partnership with Fitzgerald Coaching was $388, 000. I made all but 700 dollars back on my 10k investment. The other 10 I have already is purely profit. I still have 14 closings left!
My family and I sincerely thank you Fitzgerald Coaching!
I have had the same issue with him. His contract states that he will give a refund if you are not satisfied but as soon as you complain all communication stops. This guy is a scam artist and with the help of the Internet will be out of business soon.
Taking a listing from a for sale by owner is not a quick fix. It takes time and patience and not everyone wants to do it. My complaint is not the difficulty taking the leads - I can do that but I need to have the opportunity. Bob has expanded his program too fast and does not have the man hours to provide the service he is contracting to provide. It's amazing that in a service industry he and his staff do not understand that it is all about service. I'm not getting the opportuinities as pormised. When I spoke to the people from Fitzgerald coaching I was led to believe that I would get at least 6 to 10 leads a month. I am getting 2 or less and nothing in the last month and a half.. With an average of one valid lead for every six that means one opportunity every 3 months. And no one lists every valid lead. That's not enough to justify the $5000 I paid. Now they are starting a new program proportedly leaving those of us who have signed up and not been able to recoup our money with no resolution. The new program is $1500 per month for calls every day - that's what they promised with the old program. ? Why should anyone sign up when they are not performing on the original contract. ? I can list these people but I cant do anything if I don't get the leads. What hurts the most is that they sold me based on the affiliation with my real estate company. Shame on them because they need to fix the problem not abandon those whose money they have taken. Any ideas on how to actually talk to someone in charge would be appreciated.
Were you able to collect from the law suit or has he found a way to stall that?